DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
Members' Mausoleum => Calendar Events / Announcements Archive => Calendar Events / Announcements '26 I => Calendar Events / Announcements '14 I => Topic started by: patrickm on January 25, 2014, 05:56:46 PM
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For those who might be interested, Thayer David's made for TV movie Nero Wolfe will air on Friday January 31st at 8pm Eastern on ME TV. A little bit of history on this one - this was actually a pilot for a series that Thayer was expected to star in but died suddenly of a heart attack. It was his final acting performance. The proposed series was shelved for 4 years but eventually ran as a short lived series starring William Conrad.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you for the heads up, patrick. I haven't seen Thayer's Nero Wolfe in years. He's brilliant in it and it's a terrible shame he died before it might have gone to series.
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It's the first I've heard of it - I hope I don't forget to get it!!
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Then you (and others who've never heard of the pilot) might find it interesting how my DVR sums up the pilot:
Rex Stout's corpulent, orchid-loving detective Nero Wolfe would eventually headline his own 1980s TV series courtesy of star William Conrad. This earlier unsold TV pilot stars Thayer David, whom some Stout devotees consider the best of the many media Wolfes (which included Walter Connolly and Sidney Greenstreet). Frank D. Gilroy wrote and directed this adaptation of the Stout novel The Doorbell Rang, in which Wolfe protects his client (Anne Baxter) by taking on "the whole damned federal government". As always, Wolfe remains in his easy chair to do the brainwork, while his faithful assistant Archie Goodwin (Tom Mason) handles the rough stuff. Nero Wolfe tested well in the ratings, and might well have gone on immediately to a regular series, but the sudden death of star Thayer David put the whole project in mothballs -- until Bill Conrad was available.
An interesting bit of trivia for DS fans is that David Hurst (Justin Collins 1841PT) also appears in the pilot.
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I'm lucky enough to have seen this film a couple of times and I give it the very highest possible recommendation, particularly for Thayer David fans. The actor who plays Archie is very good as well... just a wonderful gem and a superb showcase for the incredible talent that was Thayer David.
G.
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I usually go through the listings each night and set up anything I want to record for the next day. But once in a while if I know about something that's several days away and I'm afraid of forgetting it, I'll schedule it in advance. So, I just decided I better set this one up now and not take any chances!
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Josette I think you will be very happy to have made the extra effort. Our Thayer really shines as Nero Wolfe. The only thing that upsets me whenever I watch it is I think how young he was when he died...
G.
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Gothick, I'm really looking forward to it!
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Nero Wolfe is starting in a few minutes! I'm really excited to see it.
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I DVR'd it earlier and I've got a cup of tea and a snack prepared to sit down and watch it now. [snow_smiley] I haven't seen it in close to 30 years, so I'm hoping it's as good as I remember...
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Well, I'm only halfway through and I can already say that it's even better than I remember. The dialogue and Thayer David's performance are incredibly sharp. They definitely don't make network TV movies as high caliber as this anymore - and more's the pity.
If only it had gone to series. But alas...
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OMG, I forgot about this!
If anyone recorded this, I'll pay for a copy!
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Oh, David - if you'd only asked sooner because I deleted my copy off the DVR earlier today. [snow_sad]
But the good thing is MeTV does tend to recycle their movies, so it should be back again at some point. [snow_smiley]
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I will make sure I catch it next time!
(unless someone else has it now. [snow_smiley])
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It was wonderful! I've seen him in a few things, but almost always they are bit parts. It was really nice seeing a leading role. I also enjoyed Anne Baxter.
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For anyone who's interested, a penpal who caught the broadcast told me that this version of the film runs to 92 minutes. It has the clearest color and best sound of any version seen to date and apparently has footage that was missing from some of the versions that have circulated on the grey market--some of the latter derive from a 16 mm copy from a collector.
I alas do not have it, though a friend is working on getting me a copy.
Beest, G.
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Most made-for-TV two hour movies clocked in at 100 minutes back in 1977 - and I just checked one of the Leonard Maltin books and it indicates that's the running time. If your friend is correct on the running time of the MeTV version, then that would mean that 8 minutes are still missing. However, while I was watching I was conscious of the possibility that MeTV may have cut scenes to add commercials, but I have to say that if they did cut anything, the plot didn't suffer because (unlike, say the butchering of The Sixth Sense, where half the content of each ep was sacrificed to fit into Night Gallery's running time, turning the eps into incoherent messes) everything made perfect sense and seemed to flow smoothly.
I once videotaped this movie back in the mid-80s and I still have that copy. Unfortunately, though, I don't have a VCR to play the tape to see if I could possibly catch anything that may have been extra and/or missing in that version and/or if it had a running time longer than 92 minutes. But then I may have only saved Thayer's scenes because I often did things like that back then - and if I did, even if I did own a VCR, it wouldn't matter...
As an aside, Maltin says that Thayer was "ideally cast" and described the film as "above average." I couldn't agree more on both counts.
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Pay no attention to the 100min running time listed in the Leonard Maltin guide. That guide tended to just list most TV movies that were run in a 2hr slot (from that era) as a generic 100min running time, and often that doesn't prove to be the case.
Having just watched it, I didn't get the feeling that any scenes were cut from it- nothing felt missing, story-wise. ME-TV tends to time-compress (i.e.: speed-up) older TV episodes that run longer than the modern time-slot, (25 vs 21mins) rather than cut them. It sticks out like a sore-thumb, once you start to notice it. It's not for all shows, and not for every scene, but there will be a few sequences in things like Get Smart, where it sounds sped-up and the motion looks odd and jerky. Nero Wolfe didn't appear time-compressed at all to me- it probably would have played havoc with the harpsichord score- and that is most likely what they would have done to bring the running time down.
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I didn't get the feeling that any scenes were cut from it- nothing felt missing, story-wise.
That's exactly the way I felt.
ME-TV tends to time-compress (i.e.: speed-up) older TV episodes that run longer than the modern time-slot, (25 vs 21mins) rather than cut them. It sticks out like a sore-thumb, once you start to notice it. It's not for all shows, and not for every scene, but there will be a few sequences in things like Get Smart, where it sounds sped-up and the motion looks odd and jerky.
Very interesting - I haven't noticed that. But then I don't watch MeTV too much. And Nero Wolfe was the first made-for-TV movie I've ever watched on the channel. But the next time I watch something I'll have to pay really close attention to see if I can catch any speeding up. And truthfully, so long as it doesn't completely ruin a scene, I think I'd rather see it sped up than cut...
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I saw the accelerated speed on some material a buddy DVD-R'ed for me from Me-TV. I think it was episodes of PETER GUNN. I remember a chase scene in particular that was very obviously speeded up. Unfortunately the acceleration gave the whole thing a Keystone Kops look.
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Yes, while perhaps better than an edit it is still nonetheless distracting (not to mention annoying). I opted out altogether - it was Perry Mason which is available on DVD so I could afford to get grand about it.